Badminton shuttlecocks include those that employ feathers (natural feathers) of waterfowl for their feathers (natural feather shuttlecocks), and those that employ artificial feathers synthetically manufactured from a nylon resin or the like therefor (artificial feather shuttlecocks).
As is widely known, natural feather shuttlecocks have a structure using 16 or so natural feathers from a goose, duck, or the like, with a base end of the rachis of each feather implanted into a hemispherical mounting block (base) configured from leather-covered cork or the like. The feathers employed in natural feather shuttlecocks have a low relative density and are extremely light in weight. The rachises of such feathers also have high rigidity. Natural feather shuttlecocks therefore have a distinctive flight performance and a satisfying sensation is obtained when they are hit.
However, the feathers serving as the raw materials for natural feather shuttlecocks are, as mentioned above, harvested from waterfowl. Moreover, they may not be taken from anywhere on the waterfowl, and are taken from sites thereon suitable for shuttlecock use. There are accordingly only a very small number of feathers that can be harvested for shuttlecocks from a single bird, and supply is unstable. There is also a variation in performance thereof.
Although artificial feather shuttlecocks provided with feathers made from resin integrally molded into a ring shape are well known, the feathers are not able to move individually independently of each other in such artificial feather shuttlecocks in the same manner as in natural feather shuttlecocks. This makes it difficult to obtain flight performance similar to that of natural feather shuttlecocks.
There are accordingly proposals for artificial feathers modelled on feathers, as described in Patent Literature 1 below. Namely, there is a proposal for an artificial feather shuttlecock with artificial feathers including a vane section and a rachis section to support the vane section.